Tuesday, July 31, 2012

It is about friggin' time this finally happened. I'm talking about the constant stream of religious claptrap coming from the extreme right. I'm talking about the constant state of bigotry and hatred a few have toward people who are gay. I'm talking about people in power standing up and telling corporations that preach such nonsense that their business is not welcome. It is a huge development for reasons I will explain.

First, this is a losing battle in a generational war. There are several issues besides stopping gay marriage that are failing to win new minds, such as continuing the drug war, giving rich people all our money while we starve at slave wages and letting big banks have NO regulations. It doesn't matter if you are conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, if you are under forty a huge percentage of them believe that these things are the spawn of Satan. But guess what? Younger people are not dying off like the fucking Baby Boomers who in all honesty, can't die soon enough. This is the most spoiled, evil generation ever with no consideration to anyone but themselves and a complete disregard for common sense. Luckily for us, they are not getting any younger and their outdated ideals are dying with them.
Take gay marriage. As little as four years ago, a majority of this country disapproved. Now a slim majority is all for it and that number is growing. This is a dead issue. Sooner or later, the religious right is going to cry themselves out and no one is going to listen. I am sick to death about hearing the sanctity of marriage as defined in the Bible. They must not ever read the damned book because the Bible's definition of marriage include marrying your rapist or your brother in law after your husband dies, spending your menstrual cycle in isolation, support of slavery and being able to be bought for some chickens and a cow. None of these things do we do today because THEY ARE IDIOTIC! The Bible is a great book to learn about things like honesty, morality and leading a just life. Somehow ever other schmuck on the planet sees death to infidels, no better than the Muslims or Jews. How is it so many people can read a book based on living a selfless life and instead misunderstand it to say screw everyone but me and mine? Unbelievable.
The Bible was written by sheep herders who thought the world was flat, the sun revolved around the Earth and pork was evil, not because uncooked pork will kill you, but because "God" said it was bad. All nonsense. Yet we have every moron on earth saying " the Bible is all true and because of that marriage is between a man and a woman." Only it never says that anywhere. I also seemed to have missed the part where Jesus condemns all gay people to hell. Must be in a revision. Or the missing eleventh commandment THOU SHALL NOT BE GAY. A typo I guess. The Rapture seems to be gone as well. My Bible apparently sucks.
As neither Jesus nor God EVER condemn gays, where is it written? Mostly by St, Paul, a notorious firebrand who may have hated gay people because he himself, may have been gay. Other than a few passages in Leviticus which could have been written by anyone, most of the anti-gay rhetoric is solely Paul's. This is not exactly a ringing endorsement for the whole anti-gay tirade the Catholic Church and others have taken up.
Speaking of which, isn't it ironic that the one organization which leads the charge of anti-gayness is still reeling from the gay pedo scandals of the eighties. I went to school with a pedo priest and knew several people he tried to molest before being sent away for "health reasons." He never tried anything with me which means gay men found me as attractive as straight women apparently for most of my youth. So the Bible anti-gay stance is suspect, like most of what is written there. The best way to read the Bible is this way: the Ten Commandment and the words of Christ. Everything else is debatable.
But now we have a shift in perception. Politicians, the democrats in particular, have seen their watershed moment and grabbing it with gusto by acknowledging support for gay marriage and not for bigotry against them. The President did something very smart by accepting gay marriage, ending "Don't ask, don't tell," and now comes word that the platform will be addressed at the DNC. With any luck, Obama will sign an executive order allowing gay marriage as a federal right.

It was recently revealed that famed astronaut, the late Sally Ride, was gay and living with her partner for 26 years. Her partner will be ineligible for SS benefits, a travesty. I am glad to see democrats finally coming to terms with the fact that anti-gay stances are not winning over new converts and actually could be a serious platform instead.
Even businesses are feeling the heat. Chick-Fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy was vilified when he recently told the Baptist Press that Chick-Fil-A is "very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit." Mayors in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago all said the business was not welcome in their cities, a fact that may start seriously start hurting his bottom line if others follow suit. Jim Henson cut all ties for toy promotions with them and gay friendly cities like San Fransisco have seen protests outside the chain restaurants.
J.C. Penny saw some early issues with hiring openly gay talk show host Ellen Degeneres as a spokesperson. A Million Mom March was planned to protest the move as well as a total boycott. The rally fizzled and J.C. Penny saw no downtick in profits. That didn't happen until they unwisely eliminated sales which saw profits sink faster than the Titanic, Gay people fine. Getting rid of sales unAmerican.
Other business owners, seeing a trend, have jumped on the band wagon to say they are gay friendly too. Amazon, Microsoft, General Mills, and Elliot Management have all come forward to voice their support and donated millions to gay charities. Studies done since the controversy show that sales will be affected as more people say they will not eat there because of their stance. I rarely went to Blockbuster for much the same reasons as their CEO was a staunch anti-abortion foe and see what happened to them. True, they were mismanaged in an increasingly digital age, but think how many people like myself went somewhere else for years because of their stupid political positions.
This is not the first stupid thing this company has done. Chick Fil A tried to stop a small business owner from using the slogan EAT MORE KALE, which he had been using for almost a decade, because it was too much like EAT MOR CHIKIN and yes that is how they spelled it. The case got them a lot of flack for picking on a little guy for actually having the gall to use English words that everyone uses. Word spread across the Internet and public opinion of Chick Fil A plummeted. They wisely dropped the suit.
Free speech wise, anyone or any company can say whatever they like. But much like yelling fire in a crowded movie theater, having this kind of speech made public will affect your bottom line. Chick Fil A has said they will keep their mouths shut from now on about political or religious matters. Unfortunately, the cat is out of the bag on your true feelings and it's is impossible to get that genie back in the bottle.
We hear how many people are anti-abortion or anti-gay but when push comes to shove, history shows the opposite to be true. Chick Fil A mas made a monumental error in that it may have problems opening new stores in some places until their reverse course. And look what happened to the Kagan Foundation when they got rid of Planned Parenthood for abortion issues. Planned Parenthood got double the donations they usually get while Kagan is on life support with a majority of the board gone. Mississippi couldn't even get a radical anti-abortion law passed when it lost by a wide margin.
The country is becoming increasingly comfortable with gay people, abortion as a last resort, legalization of pot and other "liberal" ideas. This is why the GOP is ultimately doomed as their voters are dying while the democrats are gaining the rest. The election is not going to to be close at this rate regardless of what the pundits say. Obama's numbers are rising in almost all the key states. And while I am far from an Obama supporter, I see the alternative as too frightening to contemplate. This latest fiasco, in a long line of conservative faux pas this week, is just the beginning. The right needs to start coming into the 21st century and if like Plato says you won't, we will drag you kicking and screaming into the light.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

It was a terrible week for Republicans in general. Let's see those runner ups.

1)Casey James- This guy qualifies for worst employee ever. While working at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, James got into a texting phone argument with his ex-girlfriend about her new beau. He got pissed, wanted to go home, so he set fire to the ship he was working on causing $400 million dollars in damage to taxpayer equipment which we now have to reimburse. His girlfriend was right to break up with this mastermind. He faces life in prison and up $250,000 in fines. Way to go dude.

2)LA city council- Speaking of masterminds, in a complete lack of understanding of how democracy works, the local government has put a ban on medical marijuana shops within city limits. Nevermind the fact that a huge majority of people support medical pot, nevermind the fact that you will be putting thousands of people out of work in a depression, nevermind the huge decrease in taxes you will collect, nevermind the fact that you condemning sick people to a life of agony, nevermind the fact that none of you will win re-election, that "dangerous demon weed" will be no more. Except in every high school, grammar school and playground city wide now that you are driving it back underground again. And come election day, a lot of you will be joining in that long line at the unemployment office. I seriously hope you all come down with degenerative nerve diseases that requires pot to alleviate the pain. Let's see how high and mighty you are then.

3)Eric Holder and the Justice Department- There is no low this ass won't sink to. It turns out that Holder and Lanny Bruer, head of the DoJ criminal division were both partners for years at a firm that represented Big Banks almost exclusively. It is worth noting that not one indictment against any bank has been made for their foreclosure mess, the LIBOR scandal, or any other problem not cased by a single person, ie Bernie Madoff. Rumor is Holder is looking at a narrow range investigation into the LIBOR scandal, or in other words, a scape goat will be necessary to look like the administration is doing something, but in reality is just looking out for the banks best interests. Expect some low level lackey's head to fall, like Martha Stewart's show trial, to show blood to the mob all the while stealing trillions from us.Wake up people. This is only going to get worse.

4)Michael Phelps- Dude, you sucked this week so far. Maybe you should be laying off the pot a little.

5)NBC- Leave it to this failing network to screw up the opening ceremonies. First they failed to show the opening games anywhere except taped on their network for maximum ratings (Can't really fault them for that) which pissed off many who would have liked to watch it live on the Internet. Then, it comes out that they edited out part of the opening for an interview with Michael Phelps. WTF? You have two and half weeks to show that interview a dozen times, leave the opening ceremonies as is, douches.

6)The Ralph Smeed Foundation- A loony libertarian sect, these brainpowers put up an electronic billboard lately linking Obama to the Joker shootings in Colorado. A giant sign in Caldwell, Idaho shows a photo of Holmes with the words, "Kills 12 in a movie theater with assault rifle, everyone freaks out," written under his picture, which cuts to a photo of Obama with the words, "Kills thousands with foreign policy, wins Nobel Peace Prize," written below. The words TOO SOON mean anything for. Christ can anyone show a LITTLE tact in the wake of this tragedy.

7)Anti-gun nuts- The reason 12 people died in that massacre wasn't the fact that Holmes had guns but that no one else in the theater was allowed to have them. One guy with a 45 would have seriously ruined Holmes day and kept a lot of others alive. And body armor or not, you get shot, it will stun you. We need to have serious discussion about guns and outlawing them is not the answer. Just ask Australia what happened when they banned all sorts of guns following a massacre a school where dozens of children were killed. The crime rate skyrocketed and still hasn't gone down to the time before guns were outlawed. Gun laws make crime go up, way up. That is not a statistic that can be refuted no matter how many times some idiot suggest it can. Science is not up to debate. It is fact or it is not. I wish everyone out there would stop gumming up the system with their nonsense.

8)James Holmes Conspiracy theories- Why is it, no matter what the tragedy, there is always a conspiracy. Sometimes, like 9/11 or OKC, there is ample evidence to support a debate. But when it comes to idiocy like the moon landing, John John's ill fated plane trip or this latest round of garbage with the Colorado shooting, there is NO CONSPIRACY. There is not one shred of proof for any of the above statements. I can bounce a powerful laser off the lunar module or even see it with a strong enough telescope so I know we went to the moon. I used to live a few miles from the airport John Kennedy Jr took off from and that night was worst fog I ever seen in my life, so those reports about "clear skies" the night of the crash are making shit up. And now we have James Holmes who the alternate press is all over and "eyewitnesses" who say they saw a second gunman. Eyewitness testimony is worthless and anything anyone ever tells you must be taken with a grain of salt. This guy was a loner in every sense of the work with no close friends and a family history of mental illness. He defines the lone shooter mentality.

9)The super rich- While the rest of us starve with downward mobility all the rage, now comes word that some unnamed Middle Eastern billionaire (most likely a trillionaire) will be purchasing the largest yacht in the world worth over $500 million dollars. Fucker.

10)Mitt Romney and the GOP- The Republicans party had a very bad week this week. They keep crowing about their job program, which when placed under scrutiny, is shown to be a terrible idea that will do nothing to spur job growth. They have killed any type of legislation that could help the country like the much needed Farm bill, any of Obama's job programs and now comes word that the bills needed to save the Post Office are dying due to a GOP stranglehold on passing anything. Voting Republican means voting to end America so keep it up idiots. Meanwhile, the rest of us starving.

Add to the mix, GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who had a terrible week insulting England over their Olympics and then stumbling over an apology. He looked so UNPRESIDENTIAL it was startling. And contrary to what the nationwide polls show which say Romney leads by five points, individual state polls in key battleground states, show an unmistakable lead for the President. If the election were held today, it is most likely that Obama will already by over the necessary 270 votes to win easily. Romney has an uphill battle and desperately needs a fatal misstep by Obama to catch up at this point. It is highly unlikely that that will happen. So congratulations Mitt, you are indeed douchebag of the week.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Both Romney and Obama both got slammed this week by their opponents for statements taken way out of context for political hay to be made of. For Obama it was his highly accurate statement that rich people don't build anything on their own. The GOP pounced that this "anti business statement" proved the President to be that Marxist Kenyan they always knew he was. What he actually said is that no business owner starts a business on his own. He always has help. Most received generous tax breaks by the government, as a few individuals were discovered to have been recipients of in a recent anti-Obama ad slamming the President for offering the exact same help they are guilty of taking, or at the very least, employed people to build their buildings, equipment, etc. No one builds a business all on their own. It is not possible.

Yet the GOP publicity machine is now basing an entire platform over an international misunderstanding, that once the full speech is heard, makes perfect sense. The Republicans fucktards have taken one line and looped it around and around like a scene from Clockwork Orange. My eyeballs dry out every time I see Scott Brown stooping to a new low by using this crap in a new ad campaign that ties Obama to his opponent Elizabeth Warren and their "commie" ways. Warren is at least standing up for the little guy, a rarity in this day and age. Anyone not voting for her come November better bend over and be prepared to take it up the ass because the very people putting Republicans into office are going to be some of the first affected by their scorched earth policy on social programs. Hope you like living with granny, because her SS check is going to disappear along with her medical care. Enjoy your life broke like the rest of us. And you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Fox news has had a field day with this as shows like Fox and Friends(the worst morning show ever and anyone who watches early morning TV will see that's quite a feat.), keep showing the same Obama clip, out of context as always, while crowing about what a dick the President is for daring to suggest that rich people are not all powerful. Sacrilege they cry. I can't keep my muffin down in the morning watching this crap. This is on 24/7 and is a complete and total lie.

Then comes Romney on his now ill fated trip to the Olympics in England. What should have been a simple photo op with world leaders, has now turned into a giant fiasco because of another statement taken out of context. Romney was asked by NBC news anchor Brian Williams what he thought about the British Olympics. He said he felt they were doing a good job but felt the security problems with G4S was an issue and that the strike by railroad workers was ill timed. He then hoped the British people would rally around and deliver a great Olympics.

For this, the British pounced as if he were George Washington circa 1778. How dare he criticize us, the British Press wrote. Our patriotism is not be questioned, and more nonsense like that caught Romney totally off guard. David Cameron made a dig at Salt Lake City being in the middle of nowhere (it is) and mayor Boris Johnson told a crowd of 80,000 at Hyde Park that they are ready for the Olympics regardless of what Mitt Romney said as the crowd cheered. Not exactly the right image you want in your first foreign outing is to insult the people you are going to visit.

His response to their criticism does show a glaring flaw in his run for high office that he seemed so unpresidential in all of this. His stupid grin plastered to his face, he looks more like a car salesman trying to get me to buy the undercoating than a political candidate. This was all handled badly by not looking like a leader who should have stood by what he said while praising the British for all their efforts. He could have said this: "I stand by what I said that there are some glaring problems with the Olympics such as the handling of the G4S security company. How did they receive 22 million pounds and do nothing with it? Why were so many people not showing up for work? This is a fundamental problem with our society that too many companies are taking our tax dollars and we are getting nothing for it. If I am elected President I will put a stop to this kind of egress and blah blah blah." You get the idea. Instead, he backed down to public pressure, like he always does as his past is littered with positions that change at the drop of a hat, and looked more like a stooge than a leader. Way to go.

I live near a battleground state so I get all the wonderful ads that lie, lie and lie some more. The closer we get to the election, the worse its going to get. Joy.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Normally I leave my reviews for my sister site Lost and Forgotten Films which, as of late due to time constraints, is more about reviewing films just out in theaters. But this film has many aspects which relate to today's world and while the film was far from perfect, it pluses were much more than the minuses. I will keep it spoiler free so as to not ruin the really great ending.

The movie takes place eight years after the Joker was caught and Harvey Dent aka "Two Face," is killed leaving Bruce Wayne/Batman broken in body and spirit. He has become a recluse whose fading fortune is hurting the charities he once championed. While having a party for Harvey Dent's memory, Bruce watches the gala from afar as Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Anne Hathaway looking spectacular in tight leather) makes off with a valuable heirloom from the Wayne Estate.

Meanwhile, Bane (A humongous Tom Hardy) is busy escaping from a CIA controlled jet with Dr. Pavel, a Russian scientist Bane needs, crashing the plane in the process in a thrilling sequence that sadly would not be replicated for most of the film.

The first act establishes the characters we know like Morgan Freeman's Lucious Fox, Michael Caine as Alfred and Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon. New ones like good cop Blake ( A magnetic Joseph Gordon Levitt which is good because I swear he's in the movie more than Batman), new CEO of Wayne Enterprises Miranda (Marion Cotillard of Inception as well. It's like half the cast was in this), and dick cop Foley played in a welcome return by Mathew Modine, whose career was killed by Cutthroat Island.

Batman is forced out of retirement after Bane steals all his money after a daring Wall Street heist and holds the city hostage with a giant nuke. Batman gets the crap beat out of him by Bane at one point, echoing the famous scene in the comics of Bane breaking Batman's back and throwing him into a prison half way round the world. This has been the problem with some of the haters out there but I had little issue with actually. The passage of time in this movie is handled rather poorly and can be confusing to some people who can't follow a non-continuous time line, which the film isn't. It's not Memento, Chris Nolan's first movie, or anything like that, but time does skip around for weeks at a time with no mention of it.

The main problems from the film involve a really SLOW middle act which should have been trimmed or tightened a little. Characters that are supposed to be of huge importance probably should have been introduced in previous films to establish some better character arcs. New and very important characters like Miranda, Catwoman and Blake should have been around at some point since the first film and not introduced in the last act of a trilogy. It would be like not having Gandalf in Lord of the Rings until the last film. It doesn't work.

The other problem I had were the rather lame fight sequences. Fight scenes are my favorite part of just about any film, especially super hero films, and here they had all the impact of a being hit with a wet sponge. I don't know who the fight co-oridinator was in this movie but he sucked. Batman and Bane duke it out with no good martial arts or even a batwing or two. Just punches and let me tell you that gets boring after a while. The resolution of Bane's character is kind of lame too with a terrible death scene and a questionable story arc revealed late in the film.

However, the slights aside, the film is a written masterpiece of subversive story telling. Chris Nolan can say what we wants about this not being a political film but it is anything but. The news may have actually hit upon something, although not in the conspiracy way that Fox would suggest. Bane IS a representative of the Tea Party Movement and even Occupy Wall Street to a certain extent. He is a populist figure using his power to get the underdogs to rise up with him and take over the city from the rich elites. The only problem is, he's just using the people for his own nefarious purposes and will eliminate millions of them without a second thought, a plan he actively tries in the film.

We have heard the movie used Bane as a reference to Mitt Romney and his Bain Capital ties. The funny thing, while I believe the Bane/Bain reference is entirely coincidental, the fact remains that Bane IS MITT ROMNEY. Mitt is trying to get people to vote against one's self interests so he can step in and slaughter the rest of us. We keep hearing that Mitt is a man of the people and he's looking out for the underdog. But he has no policy ideas that have been mentioned so far that will work and if things like the Paul Ryan Budget plan are ever enacted, society will collapse as we know it. That is not hyperbole or exaggeration, if that plan is ever enacted in it's entirety the country will spin out of control. If starvation, disease and poverty are what you want for you and your kids by all means vote for ANY GOP candidate come November. Just remember if you do that you will be voting for this man.

The film is a great piece of screenwriting with a few glaring problems. In no way is it better than The Avengers but few films this year will be.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

It's been a bad week for anyone out there with a brain. Is it just me of is the entire world losing their mind? I swear it's like ninety percent of the planet got dosed with LSD and no one bothered to invite me. The obvious winner in the insane train was obviously deranged loon James Holmes whose court appearance should waylay any thoughts about the rationality of this man. From the moment he was caught, I felt he would be a paranoid schizophrenic, a disease I have seen up close and personal.

I used to date a girl back in college whose mom had the affliction. According to her mom, she had a demon named Joe that sat on her shoulder and told her what to do and was usually heavily medicated on lithium every time I met her. Her daughter was showing signs of becoming like her mom in her early twenties, which is the age schizophrenia usually manifests. She died of a drug overdose soon after. I was one of the last people to hear from her before she OD'd. It's a horrible disease which I truly hope only the most deserving bastards get. My ex certainly didn't.

Experts have confirmed, such as Professor Jack Levin a crime writer and teacher at Northwestern, that Holmes is almost certainly delusional, and if he is faking it, there are sophisticated ways of making sure he isn't. From his court appearance alone, as well as his studies which may have been influenced by his fracturing mental state, suggest a true mental illness. This does not excuse his behavior mind you as many schizophrenics are harmless, like my ex-girlfriend's mom. I still think he deserves the death penalty, sick or not as there is no cure for his disease and he will never be a productive member of society. The court is likely to agree with me as public sentiment will overshadow any medical diagnosis. The bright orange hair didn't help and neither did his crazed look mug shot. This kid's screwed.

The MSM has been all over this and wrong about most of it from the start. In the rush to be the first on any story, every major news network is tripping over the integrity to get there. Both CNN and Fox got hammered when they incorrectly reported that Obamacare had been overturned by the Supreme Court, with CNN going on more than seven minutes on air before realizing their error.

What is worse is that some are deliberately fixing the narrative. Fox news has been doing this for years with shows like Hannity and Fox and Friends leading the charge for wrong info that is being spun for purely political purposes. Now comes the fact that other networks have started to adopt this dangerously stupid tactic. NBC was caught recently altering the George Zimmerman 911 calls to make him look racist. ABC first calls Holmes a Tea Party follower, with absolutely zero confirmation, which turns out to be false, albeit not until hours later. Tea Party people were rightly pissed at being lumped in with this nutbag. They have enough of their own crazies to have this loon tied to their platform. Now comes word that the ABC call with Holmes' mom might not have played out the way they said, where she conforms her son is the likely shooter. As no recording exists (WTF? As a former reporter, one of the cardinal rules of an interview is to tape everything), it becomes a he said she said situation. Considering the level networks will stoop to lately to get a story, I'm not entirely sure she isn't telling the truth.

And the conspiracy theories abound, none of which hold any weight. The placement of the gas mask and gun outside the theater, the "second shooter" (this is apparently the norm for any attack anywhere as there is always a second shooter seen and almost never exists), and other nonsense is clouding the real issue. The only story that was any basis of fact is that most shooters over the past few decades have all been on anti-depressants. Whether it was the medication or their insanity that caused the mayhem is a debate for another day.

The MSM is not helping. In fact, it is this kind of yellow journalism that is getting people killed. It was recently found that Whooping Cough is back and the main reason for this 19th century scourge resurgence is the MSM constantly reporting about suspect studies about the safety of vaccinations. I have a science degree and I read scientific studies on a daily basis, most of which a pure bunk. The level of problems with half of the studies today are an alarming amount of unsupported conjecture and idiotic hypotheses. There is no evidence that vaccinations are making us sick but as our level of mistrust has risen to historic levels, and with good reason, nobody trusts anyone, including doctors. With millions not being vaccinated, outbreaks of measles, mumps and whooping cough are becoming more and more frequent. I got my vaccination updated a few months ago, and I am just fine, just as the real studies show. Don't be afraid of this idiotic conspiracy theories when there are others that WILL kill you.

Voting for the GOP is a good start. For new readers, let me be clear: I hate both parties and feel our government has been overtaken by a fascist corporate state. However, the entire GOP seems hell bent on destroying this country a hell of a lot quicker than the democrats, and I'd rather have a slow painful death that maybe can be reversed than getting my head cut off and not recover at all. Voting for the GOP means voting for an end to unemployment, health care, Medicare, Medicade, food stamps and Social Security. What rational person is for this? No one, yet idiots across the nation are voting against their self interests, one that will bite than hard in the ass when their policies go into affect, should they regain complete control just like the 2000's. Remember that when they had total control, they drove the country off a cliff. What makes you think they won't do that again?

Now comes word of another "jobs bill" that the GOP is touting as better than Obama's. They are constantly crowing about the 30 job bills that the House passed and now dying in the Senate. John Boehner now carries around a 4 by 8 card which lists off the job bills which he flashes at campaign events. This is from the Huffington post:

"President [Barack] Obama and Democrats here in Congress have shown us what doesn't work: more government, more spending, more taxes don't create more jobs," Boehner said at a recent weekly briefing. "We've passed more than 30 jobs bills, including bipartisan bills expanding energy production and projects like the Keystone pipeline."

"House Republicans are committed to bold, pro-growth policies and have passed dozens of bills to create jobs," Erid Cantor said in a statement. "We've begun to right the ship, but we will not be able to achieve long-term growth without willing partners in the White House and Senate."

They are using these bills to show that they are not obstructionists but not having a willing partner in the Democrat controlled Senate and if only they had the power, unemployment would drop dramatically. There's only one problem: the bills don't create jobs in any significant number and in some cases, may lead to job losses. Figures.

Here's what some economists had to say:

"A lot of these things are laughable in terms of a jobs plan that would produce noticeable improvements across the country in the availability of employment in the next four or five years," said Gary Burtless, a senior economist at Brookings. "Even in the long run, if they have any effect all, it would be extremely marginal, relative to the jobs deficit we currently have."

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, agreed that the bills would have almost no effect on job creation in the short term, though he was slightly more optimistic about their long-term prospects.

"These kind of changes will matter over a period of three to five years," Zandi said. "It takes that long before businesses can digest changes and respond to them."He noted, though, that legislation as narrowly targeted as the Republicanpackage is unlikely to do much for real job creation.

"For it to show up in a meaningful way in the natural economy, you can make specific changes that could affect a specific industry or a few companies, but it's not going to make a big difference in terms of the monthly job numbers," Zandi said. "It takes some very significant changes across lots of different industries to really make a big difference."

Carl Riccadonna, a senior economist at Deutsche Bank, said some of the bills could create jobs, but that they would amount to more of an afterthought in terms of achieving broader policy goals."They are very narrowly targeted, and it gives the impression that maybe some of this is special interest really pursuing these, not really taking a macro view but a very, very micro focus in what the impact would be," Riccadonna said. For most of the bills in the package, "jobs are a second- or third-order effect, not the main priority."

At the heart of the GOP jobs package is a push for rolling back regulations -- and gutting environmental laws that regulate clean air and water -- to spur job growth. The House Republican Conference website makes the argument that deregulation will "remove onerous federal regulations that are redundant, harmful to small businesses, and impede private sector investment and job creation."

But economists told The Huffington Post that regulation has had a minimal impact on the unemployment rate. Their claim is backed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows that just under 16,000 jobs, or 0.4 percent, were lost because of "government regulations/intervention."

"It's just hard to believe that the paperwork requirements to starting a business represent a major impediment to starting businesses right now," Burtless said. "That's not why we had lots more business creation in the late '90s."

Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, warned that any potential job creation from environmental deregulation could be offset by health concerns.

"If you increase employment but you have a lot more sick people, you have to ask yourself, 'What's the trade-off?'" he said. "The highest level of GDP is not necessarily the highest level of national satisfaction or national health."

Indeed, environmental advocates argue that many of the GOP proposals are more likely to kill people than create jobs.

"It won't save them jobs, it won't even save them that much money, but it is going to cause illnesses, deaths, more hospital stays or days lost because of illness,” said Scott Slesinger, legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That's why we have all these environmental laws.”

So if the GOP gets their way, chances our your children are going to pay a heavy, perhaps even the ultimate price, for their parents stupidity. Chances are if the GOP wins control of the Senate and the presidency, environmental laws will be gutted, a true police state will form and the US we knew will be a distant memory. So go ahead and vote for some Republican douchebag and then go dig your own grave. Just don't forget to make one for your wife and kids as well while your at it.